Taso the Greek’s “Bumpin’ Heads 2008″

ROH “Final Battle 2007″ 12/30/07

Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima vs. Austin Aries vs. Chris Hero: #1 Contender’s Four Way Elimination Match ***3/4

Jay & Mark Briscoe (c) vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black: ROH World Tag Team Titles ***3/4

Breakout- Dayton, OH 1/25/08
1. Mark & Jay Briscoe beat Matt Cross & Jigsaw **3/4
2. Claudio Castagnoli beat Adam Pearce **1/2
3. Erick Stevens defeated Davey Richards & Austin Aries to retain the FIP World Title **1/2
4. Brent Albright & BJ Whitmer beat Delirious & El Generico in a NO DQ Match ***
5. Daizee Haze beat Lacey **1/2
6. Roderick Strong & Rocky Romero beat Jimmy Jacobs & Joey Matthews ***
7. Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black ****1/4
8. Nigel McGuinness beat Chris Hero to retain the ROH World Title in a Steel Cage Match ***1/4

Black vs. Danielson had match of the year qualities in my opinion, but probably not , but when all is said and done it should get some recognition as a match where Black proved he could hang, and just another notch on the belt of the greatest wrestler in the world today. Two great athletes. I am surprised by how good Tyler Black is on the mic and in his role. AOTF is definitely one of my favorite groups entering 2008.

The Briscoes are a pretty good tag team, but I am not toally sold on them. I’ve seen them since they started out and they’ve improved and this last year where they ran with the titles had some great matches but they are getting kinda mediocre in 2008. Still, they are great workers. M-Dogg has some cool moves and Jigsaw is fine and this is all about the spots and there is little story line to the match.

ROH matches kinda have their won scale, because they are usually all good to excellent, never really a abd match on the show. Adam Pearce makes a good heel, but he’s a little lame. I prefer Claudio as a heel. Haven’t really been into his ROH run as a face. Good match but a little boring.

Haven’t seen a good three-way match in a long time. I didn’t like the interplay between all three guys in the match. Maybe Davey’s comedy stuff was decent, but it was just another match to me. I don’t like Erik Stevens, nor do I hate him either.

Albright & Whitmer vs. El Generico & Delirious started slow, but ended up being a damn good match. They were building to a dog collar match between Delirious and Pearce the next night and Pearce came out and dragged Delirious away by the neck with a steel chain. Pelle Primeau and Shane Hagadorn both interfered earlier, with Pelle eventually getting killed two-on-one by Whitmer & Gunner Scott. El Generico is one of my favorite wrestlers today.

Haze has a yeoman’s hard working match with Lacey. Did I mention the AOTF are the best thing going in wrestling today. Gotta nominate Jimmy Jacobs for charisma/promos, and also, hey! Surprise, Joey Matthews in ROH!

AOTF vs. No Remorse was a solid match with a good ending. no remorse is a better tag team then AOTF’s various incarnations except Black & Jacobs.

Main event, they started it off too cutsie. Sweet and Sour were outside the ring and they tried to help Hero out of the steel cage a number of times, the highlight of the match, because in between it was sorta boring. Hero would target a leg, hiot a big move, and then try to escape and Nigel would cut him off or grab a leg at the last moment. It was good but it got old quick. Tank Toland passed Hero a chair into the ring. They tried to both climb out a number of times. Back & forth, some innovative moves, but surprisingly lacked the heat I would have expected. Bobby Dempsey chants are definitely fun to hear. They built up to the use of the cage as a weapon, which worked out real well, as they truely used the build up to get the fans hot for the finish. But the finish sucked.